Chapter 71
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Grand Line – Paradise
Following the route to Whisky Peak
"Hmm? I know the weather is fine and everything, but shouldn't you guys at least be paying attention to the path ahead?", Zoro comments, noticing everyone either sitting or lying on the deck, lazing about. What he didn't notice was that some of them seemed extremely tired.
"Just... go fuck yourself", Usopp says, still panting, lying on the floor, completely drenched in sweat.
"Hmm? What are those two doing here? Why did they come with us?", Ignoring what Usopp said, Zoro asks after noticing Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday sprawled out on the floor.
"I make the words of the big-nosed guy mine, 'go fuck yourself'", Mr. 9 says, contemplating whether it was really a good idea to ask for this ride.
"We're going to their town", Luffy, sitting on the figurehead of the Merry, and unlike the others, not looking tired, turns to Zoro and says.
"So we're giving them a ride, why? We owe them nothing", Zoro asks, confused.
"Yeah, we don't owe them anything, but they said they'd pay, and Nami wants to extort them", Luffy says, shrugging.
"Again, if we have infinite money, why would we need more?", Zoro asks, not understanding Nami's obsession with wanting more money, even when it was no longer necessary.
"The more the better, right?", Luffy asks rhetorically.
Zoro then turns his attention to the two 'guests' and asks suspiciously, "You two planning something, huh? I can feel it in my bones. Now... what are your names?"
"I-I'm Mr. 9", Mr. 9 says, intimidated and sweating cold.
"And I'm Miss Wednesday", Miss Wednesday says, also intimidated and sweating cold.
"Codenames, huh? Mr. 9... Mr. 9, this way of naming sounds familiar to me, where have I heard something like that before?", Zoro wonders thoughtfully.
Zoro is then pulled out of his thoughts by a strong punch coated with Armament Haki to make it hurt more, delivered by Nami, who seemed to be boiling with rage.
"You mother fucking bastard, how dare the sleeping beauty leaves us hanging all this time, waking up only when we don't need anymore and on top of that insinuating that we're being lazy, we tried and tried to wake you up and all we got were snores!", Nami snarls this phrase while continuing to punch Zoro's head without letting him respond.
When she finally calms down, all that's left is Zoro squatting, rubbing his bruised head in an attempt to ease the pain.
"Okay everyone, I admit that no matter how much information I had about the Grand Line's weather, we still had difficulties. However, we made it through unscathed and with the Merry intact, and this will serve as an important lesson, there will be no more mistakes when it comes to navigation", Nami declares, determined not to make any more errors and to be better prepared.
"Well, don't beat yourself up too much. Honestly, all of this was just so abnormal. The weather on the Grand Line is crazy, but we got unlucky, passing through all of that at once with no rest at all. It was like the Grand Line wanted to show us what it's capable of", Sabo says, comforting Nami, and like Luffy, not looking tired at all.
"Even so, that's no excuse for unpreparedness. I should be ready even for situations like this, or what kind of navigator would I be? But changing the subject, it looks like we've arrived", Nami says, motioning with her chin toward the horizon, where there was an island with giant cacti they were approaching.
"Wow, look at the size of those cacti!", Luffy yells excitedly, because seeing it in real life in person is completely different from seeing it on the pages of a manga.
"Haha! Finally, we made it back in one piece, and now, excuse us, you guys seem like good people, but this is where we part ways", Mr. 9 says with a smile before jumping onto the ship's fence along with his partner.
"Thank you for bringing us here, sweethearts! We'll meet again if destiny wills it", Miss Wednesday says with a smile dancing on her lips.
"Bye, bye, baby!" "Bye, bye, baby!", they both say at the same time, waving with two fingers, before doing a backflip and jumping into the sea, quickly swimming towards the island, probably.
"Whoa, so they really were plotting something, huh? Yeah, I think they scammed us", Luffy comments, scratching his head somewhat sheepishly, knowing a scolding from Nami was coming his way any second now.
"AH! Don't tell me! Who would've thought that untying those two go would be stupid, huh?", Nami comments sarcastically, punching Luffy on the head.
"Sorry, okay? Sabo said that girl was a princess, right? I thought she'd be a nice princess like Bubblegum. It never crossed my mind she was evil", Luffy says, apologizing, embarrassed.
"Just to clarify, I said I thought she looked like the princess of Alabasta, I never confirmed that it was her, you're the one who misunderstood things, man", Sabo says, getting his ass out of the way because he didn't want to get beaten up by his brother's girlfriend either.
"And what are you waiting for, huh? You're not going after those two? They still owe us money", Nami says, irritated.
"Relax, they're on the island, right? When we get there, we just look for them, and it's not like we're short on money or diverted our course to come here", Luffy says, not giving much importance to the two's escape.
"...Sigh... there's a river just ahead, let's head ashore for there", Nami says with a sigh, choosing not to continue the argument with this airhead, knowing it would lead nowhere.
"B-but... but what if there are... I don't know... horrendous monsters or something like that on this island?", Usopp asks, scared as ever, despite already having enough strength to no longer need to be afraid of everything.
"If there are, we'll just beat them up, duh", Luffy says, explaining the obvious.
"Yeah, it would be a good test for my new axe and shield", Nojiko says, joining the conversation.
"I don't know, guys, I think my chronic disease of 'I can't enter unknown and potentially dangerous islands' is attacking up. Wouldn't it be better if we turned back?", Usopp asks anxiously.
"You're forgetting that we have to stay here for a while until the Log Pose registers the magnetic field of the next island", Nami says, dismissing Usopp's suggestion, in fact, not even considering it.
"B-but, but-", Usopp starts, trying to come up with an excuse to avoid stepping on the island.
"Man, stop being such a coward. Wasn't it you who said you fought with some thirty fishmen?", Zoro comments, crossing his arms.
"And I fought, everyone can vouch for that, I showed up dragging all of them tied up and beaten, the thing is, that's just how I am, it'll take time until I don't have more of this irrational fear of things, but let's do the following, you guys go down to the island and I'll stay on the Merry, how about it?", Usopp says, suggesting.
"Relax, love, if you get hurt, I'll heal you", Kaya comforts him, stroking his back and basically forcing him to go down to the island with them, and since she was the one in charge of their relationship, Usopp just complied.
And so, the Going Merry continues its journey, carrying the Straw Hats up the river, towards the start of their next adventure.
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(AN: 1,259 Words)
Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I'm here to make you a proposal: if you manage to gather 300 Power Stones by the end of the week, I'll release two bonus chapters immediately.
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Thank you for reading another chapter! If you enjoy this story, leave comments on the chapters, rate the story, and add it to your library.
Leave your Power Stones on this fic, it helps a lot to this story get more visibility.
And if you don't want to wait for public releases and are interested in reading more advanced chapters of this fic, you can always check out my Patreon page. There, you'll find over twenty advanced chapters of this fic and another Bully fic I recently started: patreon.com/_Luizinho_
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